The European Union is considering trade sanctions on Myanmar over the Rohingya crisis, potentially stripping the country of tariff-free access to the world’s largest trading bloc, three EU officials said.

The European Union's envoy to Myanmar has raised concerns about the arrest of two Reuters journalists in a letter to the country's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, describing the situation as "serious intimidation" and calling for their immediate release.

Four laureates of the European Parliament’s Sakharov prize for freedom of thought, an award established in 1988 and named after the Soviet physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, also won the Nobel for peace. EURACTIV Spain reports.

Canada agreed on Monday (18 September) to use its new free trade agreement with Europe as a template for a pact with Britain after its largest trading partner within the European Union leaves the bloc.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the UN Security Council yesterday (13 September) urged Myanmar to end violence against the majority-Buddhist country’s Rohingya Muslims that has forced some 400,000 people to flee to Bangladesh.

Myanmar's government, made up of ex-generals of the former military junta, is employing tactics associated with the erstwhile dictatorship to intimidate journalists before next weekend's historic general elections, Amnesty International has said.